Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Australian government has announced that 83 Sri Lankan asylum seekers intercepted in international waters will be sent to Nauru:

The original plan had been to send them to Indonesia, from where they had initially set sail. Indonesia, however, refused to guarantee that they would not be sent back to Sri Lanka from there, which led Australia's immigration authorities to transfer them to Nauru instead.

"The government is committed to a strong border protection policy," Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews told reporters. "We are also committed to sending the strongest possible message of deterrence to people who would engage in the dangerous and unlawful activity of people smuggling."

That seems like a wise policy; it safeguards the refugees while denying them their desired country of destination, which undermines the horrendous people smuggling industry.